St. Luke's

An Idaho district court judge declined to levy sanctions against Ammon Bundy, his close associate, Diego Rodriguez, as well as organizations linked to the two, in a lawsuit brought by St. Luke’s Health System – for now.

It’s Friday, which means it's time for our Reporter Roundtable when Idaho Matters gets you up-to-date on all the news that made headlines this past week.

Idaho Matters Doctors Roundtable: March 16, 2022

Dr. Rhiana Menen is the very definition of a caregiver. She’s a surgeon for the St. Luke’s Health System, where she has changed the lives of countless families. And her passion for bringing care to medically underserved populations has also taken her far from Idaho.

As our region deals with the highest number of COVID-19 cases we’ve seen since the pandemic started, the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare activated crisis standards of care this morning for all of southern Idaho.

Visitors to the area swell during the holidays, and some may bring the COVID variant with them — even though it is likely already present in the Wood River Valley.

St. Luke's Health System says it has resumed non-emergency procedures delayed since September by the large number of pandemic patients.

Unvaccinated Idahoans continue to be hospitalized at five and a half times the rate of vaccinated people, straining the hospital systems and overwhelming health care workers. Yet, misinformation and anger continues to spread throughout the state — with hateful acts targeted at the doctors and nurses working to treat those infected.

As our state continues to deal with a surge of COVID-19 cases, Idaho doctors are seeing alarming trends tied to COVID-19 cases in pregnant women—including maternal deaths, increase incidences of stillbirth and neonatal intensive care unit patients that are sicker than usual.

McDonald went home after a particularly taxing night on that floor recently and went to bed. When she woke up, the lump of stress in her throat was still there, so she started typing a poem.